This invention concerns a device for handling a cylindrical or spherical piece, which may comprise, for example, the nipper of a programmable automaton or robot. That device is equipped with simple means to measure the diameter of the piece carried during its handling.
In a great many industrial manufacturing processes, robots are used to handle pieces with a view, for example, to their doing machining or assembly. To verify the presence of the pieces, count them, check their condition and possibly regulate the manufacturing process accordingly, it is advantageous to integrate means of measuring the pieces with the handling device itself.
Of course, numerous robots are equipped with sensors, usually placed at the joints of the elements of the arm designed to grip the piece, which make it possible to determine the position of those elements. However, the limited precision of those sensors and the lack of rigidity of the elements comprising the arm, notably, when the robot is supposed to handle heavy pieces of up to approximately twenty kilograms, make it impossible to take measurements with the necessary precision, which is in the order of a few microns.
Thus, this invention will combine with the handling device a measuring means of simple design to assure rapid, reliable and precise measurement of the pieces being carried.